[Cracked Sidewalks] Reinhardt and Wilson surge to give MU one of deepest teams; 8-seed in tournament

[CrackedSidewalks]

Reinhardt and Wilson surge to give MU one of deepest teams; 8-seed in tournament

In a season  highlighted by the play of two of the top freshmen in the country, veterans Katin Reinhardt and Duane Wilson surged to carry Marquette to an projected 8-seed Monday according to both ESPN and CBS Sports. 

Due to slow starts to the season in which they were worth close to 0.00 points per game, Wilson and Reinhardt still rank as the 8th and 7th most valuable players over the season as a whole, worth an improvement of 1.99 and 2.43 in Marquette's victory/defeat margin for game due to great recent performances.

Marquette's ability to have eight different players who can be the difference in a big game makes them one of the most balanced teams in the country. Only 10 teams have eight players ranked higher than Wilson's 1.99 Value Add, and only 14 teams have seven players with a higher rating than Reinhardt's surging 2.43. Here are the teams, followed by where all of Marquette's players rank.

It is very hard to be a projected 8-seed with no players in the Top 200, but Marquette is doing it with incredible balance. Marquette's victim Villanova is the only team in the nation with three top 50 players in Josh Hart (ranked No. 1), Jalen Brunson (No. 14) and Mikal Bridges (No. 47).

Rnk	Best 8th Players 1/29/2017	Teams w/ Deepest Bench	Value
1	Mamadi Diakite #25	Virginia	3.34
2	Killian Tillie #33	Gonzaga	3.12
3	Zach Brown #1	Wichita St.	3.05
4	VJ King #0	Louisville	2.49
5	John Egbunu #15	Florida	2.47
6	Kethan Savage #11	Butler	2.44
7	Dominique Hawkins #25	Kentucky	2.33
8	CJ Walker #2	Florida St.	2.15
9	Theo Pinson #1	North Carolina	2.07
10	Parker Van Dyke #5	Utah	2.04
11	Keanu Pinder #25	Arizona	1.99
12	Duane Wilson #1	Marquette	1.99
13	Dustin Thomas #13	Arkansas	1.90
14	Justin Jenifer #3	Cincinnati	1.89
15	King McClure #22	Baylor	1.88
16	Ebuka Izundu #15	Miami FL	1.86
17	Sagaba Konate #50	West Virginia	1.83
18	Admiral Schofield #5	Tennessee	1.78
19	Kaiser Gates #22	Xavier	1.76
20	Isaac Banks #10	East Tennessee St.	1.62

Rnk	Best 7th Players 1/29/2017	Teams w/ Deepest Bench	Value
1	Josh Perkins #13	Gonzaga	4.30
2	Anas Mahmoud #14	Louisville	4.10
3	Justin Leon #23	Florida	3.51
4	Jack Salt #33	Virginia	3.48
5	Shaquille Morris #24	Wichita St.	3.44
6	Nate Fowler #51	Butler	3.44
7	Casey Benson #2	Oregon	3.03
8	Terry Maston #31	Baylor	2.87
9	Nate Britt #0	North Carolina	2.71
10	Lamont West #15	West Virginia	2.71
11	Carlton Bragg #15	Kansas	2.60
12	Khalil Iverson #21	Wisconsin	2.60
13	Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman #12	Michigan	2.49
14	Mychal Mulder #11	Kentucky	2.45
15	Katin Reinhardt #22	Marquette	2.43
16	Ryan Cline #14	Purdue	2.33
17	Temple Gibbs #2	Notre Dame	2.29
18	Devontavius Payne #1	East Tennessee St.	2.27
19	Eric Paschall #4	Villanova	2.27
20	Jarquez Smith #23	Florida St.	2.26

Marquette player ranks.

Rnk	Player	Pts/Gm
207	Luke Fischer #40	5.84
346	Markus Howard #0	4.82
360	Andrew Rowsey #30	4.75
395	Sam Hauser #10	4.46
423	JaJuan Johnson #23	4.32
582	Haanif Cheatham #25	3.69
962	Katin Reinhardt #22	2.43
1151	Duane Wilson #1	1.99
2012	Traci Carter #21	0.61
2102	Matt Heldt #12	0.52
9999	Sandy Cohen #5	0.00

Source: Reinhardt and Wilson surge to give MU one of deepest teams; 8-seed in tournament

[Dr. Blackheart]

You talk about balance and these Pomeroy stats are impressive amongst players with at least 20% of possessions:  Rowsey 3rd, nationally, Luke 14th and Markus 43rd in Orting. 

In conference games, Rowsey is #1 at a 150 Orating (incredible for halfway through), Katin is 5th, Luke 6th, Sam 9th, and Markus is 14th.

If only for the D...

[GoldenDieners32]

You talk about balance and these Pomeroy stats are impressive amongst players with at least 20% of possessions:  Rowsey 3rd, nationally, Luke 14th and Markus 43rd in Orting. 

In conference games, Rowsey is #1 at a 150 Orating (incredible for halfway through), Katin is 5th, Luke 6th, Sam 9th, and Markus is 14th.

If only for the D...

We have along time until the tourney. Not saying we are guaranteed in but i think wojo has time to fix the defense. I know hes got a few tricks up his sleeve

[bamamarquettefan]

agree with you both - Rowsey is now in top 10% of all players. I did think there was good defense played against Nova, but man it seemed a lot of those missed three pointers were wide open. i was too ecstatic being there for the game to really go back through objectively.

Hey, being an 8-seed projection right now works for me. Always said we needed 23 wins last year to make the tournament and only 20 this year, so we are on our way. Hate for the Big East that both Xavier and Creighton have lost point guards as it could have been a very nice year for the conference. Let's not get the ESPN projection of a trip to Tulsa to play a very physical Arkansas team in what would be semi-home for them, and then if we win that getting Kansas in Tulsa. I did not like that draw, but as you say a long way to go before bids are issued.

[WOJOSWARRIORS77]

Still much more basketball to be played, but we're definitely headed in the right direction. Enjoy the ride. This team is giving us one heck of a ride. Highs and lows, that happens with a young team. But lots of progress has been made. Also, more help is on the way!

[GoldenDieners32]

agree with you both - Rowsey is now in top 10% of all players. I did think there was good defense played against Nova, but man it seemed a lot of those missed three pointers were wide open. i was too ecstatic being there for the game to really go back through objectively.

Hey, being an 8-seed projection right now works for me. Always said we needed 23 wins last year to make the tournament and only 20 this year, so we are on our way. Hate for the Big East that both Xavier and Creighton have lost point guards as it could have been a very nice year for the conference. Let's not get the ESPN projection of a trip to Tulsa to play a very physical Arkansas team in what would be semi-home for them, and then if we win that getting Kansas in Tulsa. I did not like that draw, but as you say a long way to go before bids are issued.

At the beginning of the year i did not think we would be in consideration of making the tourney but now we are talking about what is the highest seed we can get and the lowest. If the season ended today and we played Arkansas and beat them i would like our chances against Kansas. They are overrated, their best big man is probably suspended the rest of the year. Also their back up guard kicked and punched a girl according to an investigation. They aren't that deep and not that tall, Frank Mason is a tough pg but i feel like if we go with out small lineup with KR at 1 or 2 we could hang with them.

[fjm]

On the personally optimistic side. We are definitely a 1 seed in the NIT... which was my personal season goal.
 

(Ducking from everyone throwing tomatos and shoes at me...)